Real Choices
by Alex Warlorn
Summary: Sequel to Choices. I didn't plan on doing a another story but you guys gave me so much to work with I couldn't resist.I didn't expsect this ending. I wrote it as it turned out. Spelling&grammer corrected.


choices2.html I didn't plan on doing a sequel but you guys gave me so much to work with I couldn't resist. Thanks to all of you who review my last story.   
I didn't expect this ending: I wrote it as it turned out.   
  


Both Pikachu and Togepi had been asleep in our back packs during our 'talk', that's one thing I could be grateful for. The fact they didn't wake up was an act of God. Pokémon Centers doubled as motels for   
trainers so we didn't have trouble finding a place to stay that night, she was glade we didn't have to camp again. She always had this fear that she would wake up with   
a Caterpie staring her in the face whenever we did.   
The city's Pokémon center was empty except for us and the Nurse Joy. Our Pokémon went into the rejuvenator for the night while we both spent the night on the   
couches.   
It had taken a while for her to rebuild her self esteem, but she was back to her normal hot tempered self. I never realized how much we depended on him to act as   
peace maker. Now our fights were allowed to go into full scale war where nothing was sacred.   
She hadn't really acted like herself that day. I had a feeling I had struck a nerve, but where I couldn't tell. After traveling with her for three years I still couldn't   
read her right.   
Around eight she had built up the mental fire power for round two.   
"One by one." She said.   
"One by one what?" She never did say a statement full the first time, I think it was her way of making me ask, reminding me I didn't know everything.   
"Let's go though them one by one. Each of the Pokémon you've let go over the last three years. Maybe then your brain will actually work if I just spell it out to   
you."   
"Misty you once gave Horsey and Staryu to your sisters remember?"   
"That's different! They're still my Pokémon, even if they're with Them. And this isn't about me Ash Ketechum, it's about you."   
"Fine! Then let's get started!"   
"Ok, first, Butterfree, the first Pokémon you let go and one of the first you abandoned."   
"Misty we were over this before. I heard the joy in your voice when Butterfree found a mate, I saw the pride you had of me when I did it."   
"At the time I was stupidly thinking you actually intended to go back for him some day. Instead, you just left him to the winds!"   
"Butterfree was in love Misty, I wasn't about to stand in the way of that. You've talked romantic more time than you'll admit Misty. You wouldn't either."   
"What if Butterfree went looking for you!? He wouldn't know where to start!"   
I flip open Dexter and it says in it's normal techno voice.   
"Butterfree, this Pokémon can track a sent several miles away and can follow a trail even years old with flawless skill." Misty's mouth opens not so much from   
the info, but from the fact I knew it was there.   
"I'm not that stupid Misty." I reply at last.   
Misty was getting more and more surprised by me standing my ground instead of backing down and doing what she said like I usual do.   
"Haunter." She said. "A powerful, rare Pokémon, that's strong against physic types. And you leave him with someone whose the expert on physics!"   
"And needed him a lot more than me Misty. Without Haunter around I wouldn't revert to a multiple personality phyco-path with a taste for dolls. You don't cure   
problems of a life time in just one day. Sabrina needed Haunter to help her more than I needed Haunter to win battles."   
"Number three. Nessie."   
"Misty . . . I only took care of Nessie because she got separated from her pod. When she found her mother I didn't have any right to keep her."   
I was getting surprised how Misty was moving on from one to another. She looked like she was being knifed from the inside on my comment with Nessie.   
"Charizard, you didn't want to give him away and he didn't want him to go. And you still did it! You weren't even thinking!"   
"Your right. I didn't want to. I didn't want to leave him there. I didn't want to give up a Pokémon that I had saved from death in a rain storm and had lost and   
gain trust after what was a life time for me. I saved his life three times."   
"Three!? I remember two!"   
I used my fingers for emphasis.   
"One, when I found him in that rain storm after Damien abandoned him. Second, after that ice beam froze him solid I rubbed my hands raw trying to keep him   
warm. Three, I stopped him from committing suicide."   
"WHAT?!"   
"You keep telling to wake up Misty, while it's your turn! Charizard's pride was shattered and his self respect ground into dust after losing again and again to   
those Charizard! You may not have a good link to fire Pokémon but I'm not so picky. I saw the look in Charizard's eyes. He had every intention of taking a dive in   
that valley's lake!"   
"But a Charizard's life force is in it's tail flame, if it went out . . . ."   
"Misty. Charizard's pride was the most important thing to him. And he lost it after losing to Charla and all the rest. Even if I took him with me and watched   
him every minute he would look for a chance and then take it do himself in. Staying there to build himself up to their level was the only way to keep him from doing   
that."   
"Sounding like Brock doesn't make you him!"   
"I'm not Brock!"   
"And your not a Trainer or Master either, your just a Friend to your Pokémon, do you know that dumb that sounds?"   
"I don't care! The best Trainers I've met considered themselves their Pokémon's friends before being their Master."   
"How could you know what Charizard was thinking!"   
"Because . . . I . . . was . . . am . . . . his . . . FRIEND!"   
"Then they're Primeape, you left him with someone you barely even knew! What kind of friend is that!"   
"I gave Primeape to him because he needed a trainer who knew how to train fighter types."   
"That's crud. While I enjoy seeing your excuses Ash, I know it's bull since Primeape DIDN'T want to go! You just gave him to that guy and WALKED OFF!   
Primeape didn't even ask if he wanted to go and was CRYING ABOUT IT!"   
"What's for the best isn't always what we want Misty! It can be painful! You don't do something because you WANT to, you do something because it's for the   
best of the person your doing it for! Friendship for pain or happiness, for sorrow or joy, you do what's best for them!"   
"In Pallet! Just before we went to the Orange Islands.   
Pidgeot didn't decide to stay either; you decided to LEAVE her BEHIND so she could "protect" wild Pokémon from a beaten Fearow. Hello? He was already beaten!"   
"That Fearow was willing to wait a year to get back at me. He holds a grudge. It doesn't matter if he loses a dozen times he'll still come back for more! And   
those Pidgy would suffer in her place if she left with me. She needed to stay there to protect them."   
Misty was breathing deep with rage. My spine turned to ice but I still held my ground. I was surprised the Nurse Joy hadn't had her sleep disrupted by our shouting   
contest.   
"And now . . . ." She said in a dangerously low tone. "How about Squrtle? You left him right back where you started. With the Squrtle Squad."   
"Is he back were he started? Can you really say he's the same as before? The Squrtle we met had no respect for humans or Pokémon that did. Can you really say   
he's back where he started? Pokémon training is supposed to be a two way street Misty. 'You'll teach me and I'll teach you'. The Squad needed their leader. I won't   
ever know. But I may of saved some lives by having Squrtle join his group when it became a fire fighter division."   
"You don't know that!"   
"Neither do you! And that's the real point of all of this. Neither of us know what he world would of been like if I hadn't let them go."   
"You'd probably be a League Master by now."   
I smiled.   
"So you admit I managed to make them pretty strong then huh?"   
"Which is why it was so dump to just release them!"   
"Misty, even if your right, it wouldn't be me with that position or power, it would someone who saw there Pokémon as things and not friends."   
"What the blank ever!"   
"WHAT'S WITH YOU MISTY?! What set you off to start all this? I'll admit you see your Pokémon as yours more than I do with mine, but you more or less   
always held most of them with respect."   
"I don't know what your talking about!"   
"The hell you don't!"   
"So you have a dirty mouth after all! Maybe I should tell your mom so she'll come all the way out here just to wash it out with soap!"   
"Maybe I should do the same with yours!"   
"My mom? . . .. " Misty's voice for a moment is so small, so painful. Then the dragon returns. "Shut up!"   
"No way! We're finishing this right now!"   
"Pokémon battle?" She smile wirely.   
"You want one?" I said, for a moment I see Gary in front of me instead of Misty. Maybe because we had had the same debate a week before we got our starters.   
She replies clenching her fists. "No, do you?"   
"Let's go!" We grab onto each other, we fall to the side of the hard polished floor neither of us notice the pain, the world becomes a blur, we punch and scratch   
at each other, I wonder if this is how a Pokémon using Struggle feels like. I hear Misty screaming, I scream too, I feel her finger nails cut into my flesh, I feel my   
fist go straight into her abdomen, for the all the times she hit me, calling me stupid, thick headed, ignorant of what I was doing, why did she care what I did with my   
life? Why did I care about defending myself to her? What did it matter what she thought? She was just following me for that dumb bike anyway. . . . . but at Pallet,   
she never even mentioned it to my mom, I also said when I was champion I would pay her back, but she didn't even talk about after I won the Orange League . . . .   
was there something more? Something neither me or her were willing to admit to? Something we hated ourselves and each others for? For not being able to humble   
ourselves enough just to say a simple truth?   
"WHAT'S GOING ON HERE!!!" Nurse Joy. She's in her night gown and is wearing her glasses instead of her contacts, her red hair is out of it rings letting it   
flow down her chest.   
We stop. We both become aware of the pain coursing though us. I feel like a convict at the execution of a thousand knifes. Misty has the start of a bruise over   
her left eyes and blood drips out of the side of her mouth. Bloodstains dominate both our cloths.   
"Who started this?" She looked at us both, we're equally injured, equally human beings, equally fools, who when it gets right down to it prefer to solves things   
with a fight when words fail or they're not giving you the answers you want to hear.   
"We both did." We say in unison with no humor in our voices. Another time, we would of thought saying things together might be funny. But it isn't.   
Nurse Joy didn't call the police. Thank God. She asked us both to leave in the morning. But still being a nurse, even a Pokémon one, she patched us up.   
I feel shame building up inside me. Another friend. I lost another friend because of my views were so different, because I was so determined to stand by them.   
Hadn't I said today, (yesterday it was midnight) that even though I started this journey for battles, and soon just to get another shot at Gary, that I realized the   
ultimate goal was to learn? Three years, and I hadn't learned anything. I still resorted to solving a problem with fists when all else failed.   
She and me looked like rejects from the movie of yester-century called 'The Mummy Returns'. No broken bones besides some loose teeth. When it had been me and Gary we had to have some   
bones set.   
Misty was sitting next to me. A patch over one eye to help it heal. Our expressions were mirrors of each other, defeat, shame, pain, but not from our infantile   
brawl, though our skin and insides were on fire. She looked at me and herself. She whispers.   
"Mom . . dad." I play the fool one last time. And dare asked her to talk about it. She doesn't respond. I beg her. I plead with her. Finally, eternity and a day   
later, she opens her mouth. Her voice is horse, and her speech a little off from her loose teeth, but it convey someone who doesn't want to be alone.   
"Mom and dad . . . . they didn't . . . . agree on how to run the Gym, they . . . . sometimes didn't use words." She didn't need to say it. They physically attacked   
each other. Like we had.   
"Finally they split up. They both said that they simple had to let each other go. And though it was painful for them both. They said the right thing wasn't always   
painless. I decided right there I would never let anyone go. Ever. That way, I would never be alone."   
"Is that why you don't ever release any of your Pokémon? Even Phyduck? Your afraid you'll end up alone?"   
"Yes . . . . and I'm afraid you'd end up that way how you were going."   
"Misty, just because friend aren't always there doesn't mean they stop being friends. Remember Charizard DID come back to help me save Mom and Molly from   
herself. It was bliss to see him again Misty. I saw him fight Misty, that old flame he had in his eyes from before was back."   
"Then why didn't you ask him to stay?"   
"Because he had a new reason to stay. It's name is Charla."   
"You mean Charizard is in love?"   
"Before he left, he said he planned on purposing to her as soon as he proved he was as strong as her."   
"But didn't that woman say Charla was the strongest one there?"   
"Charizard is like me. He loves a challenge as long as he knows he can win."   
"Ash, I'm sorry, I-"   
"Misty, I was as much jerk as you tonight when we decided to just pound each other's face in."   
"I guess so. I just feel so-"   
"Stupid?"   
"Yea. . . . When dad left, he took his starter Pokémon with him, it was a Blastoids." That explained a lot.   
"So when I let Squrtle go you saw life replaying huh?" Why did I find it easy to read her now?   
Misty only nodded.   
"Ash, tonight, I didn't know who I hated more, you, or me." How much the same were we? "I promised myself, that as long as I kept it small, that I wouldn't   
end up like Mom. But here I am, doing the same thing. I didn't learn anything." A knife stabbed, it was like looking into a mirror!   
"Maybe . . . maybe you did . . . . maybe you just . . . forgot the real lesson."   
"What's the good of a lesson if you forget it?"   
"Maybe that's why we need friends. To help us remember them."   
"Ash, I have to say something before I change my mind. Before my pride reminds me that I'm not suppose to do this sort of thing."   
"Same here."   
We talk in unison.   
"Ash/Misty I love you. Huh? You love me? I thought all you cared about was your Pokémon."   
Again in union. "Misty my Pokémon are my friends, you are too! I would never forget you."   
"Ash my Pokémon have been my companions but so are you! But your more than just a friend. You love your Pokémon Ash. You feel the same empathy I do   
when I see a Master abusing a Pokémon he thinks just isn't good enough for him. Ash, my sisters, Gary, none of them care for there Pokémon like you do Ash."   
"Two of a kind should stick together?"   
"Maybe it's the little differences that make us right for each other. Ash I do love you. It's just after reading so many cheap love novels and movies I forgot that   
love was a real emotion, and not just something you see at the movies. I guess I felt I was part of a movie all those times when I talked about romance."   
She was just going on. Giving herself to time rebuild her defenses, soon this would be a moment neither of us would ever speak of again. One of us had to do it   
fast before either of us changed our minds! With my finger I gently moved her face so we we're looking directly into each other's eyes. Her eyes are blue. I never noticed before. She stopped talking. I kissed   
her. Why had something so simple been so hard to do? I'm careful not to hurt her, we had both done a good job of trashing the other.   
Her books were right, the world did fade away, we were the only two people in the universe, and that was all we needed. That was when we both feel asleep.

The next morning we found ourselves on separate couches, if not for bandages we both of thought last night was a dream. We collected our Pokémon from   
Nurse Joy without a word between us. Pikachu and Togepi were both shocked to see us the way we were. Pikachu could take it, but we weren't so sure about Togepi,   
Misty said she would tell her when she was older.   
Pikachu showed no reaction when I told him about our fight, he fainted when I told him about our kiss, the possibility of us admitting we liked each other was as   
likely as me catching Mew, but he recovered soon enough.   
The sun was rising, it was a new dawn. In spit of our injuries we both felt lighter than yesterday.   
Finally I whispered in her ear.   
"Love you."   
"Love you too." We walked to wherever the road might takes us, we didn't know what lay ahead, but we would met it, together.

~There are no strangers, only friend yet to be made.   
Alex Warlorn

Flames, comments, suggestions, corrections, objections, and the occasional constructive crittizem all welcome.   



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